Pilgrimages to Lourdes 2024

Summer and Autumn

As we prepare for the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of Prayer for the Sick on 11th February, we are making preparations for our first Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes with assisted pilgrims. The assisted pilgrims will be supported by our hospitality team and young people, who return to Lourdes for the first time since the pandemic. 2019 was our last year to bring assisted pilgrims and while in recent years we have had a pilgrimage, it has been without assisted and sick pilgrims. Without their presence the pilgrimage is not complete.

We will have our pilgrimage this year from Friday 21st to Wednesday 26th June and we will fly directly from Shannon Airport. We have been allocated just 24 beds in the Accueil Notre Dame where the assisted pilgrims will stay. Dr Martin Fitzgerald and Dr Anne Marie Murphy will be the Medical Officers looking after the needs of the assisted pilgrims. Michael Daly and Theresa Nash will lead the Hospitality and Nursing section.

Michael Geraghty, as Director of Youth, will be assisted by six Youth Leaders who will care for the twenty-four young people. Michael will be contacting the Vicars of each Pastoral Area to explain how the selection of these young people will happen this year. Silvermines Parish Choir, under the direction of Olive Hogan, will enhance the liturgies with their music and song.

The cost of the pilgrimage is ever increasing and this year it will cost pilgrims €899pps. The Assisted pilgrim’s fare will be €750. Our Pilgrimage Committee subsidises the fares of the assisted pilgrims, members of the Youth Section, choir members, hospitality, and nursing staff. This is only possible thanks to the generosity of parishes who hold the annual Lourdes collection. I would ask all parishes to forward their collection directly to the Diocesan Office. Without this support it would not be possible to organise the pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage brings many blessings. Faith is encouraged and opportunities are provided for people to experience the universal church at prayer.

The dates this year are,

 

Monday 21st June to Wednesday 26th June

Monday 30th September to Saturday 5th October

 

Many thanks for your support over the years. As we now prepare to embrace the challenging realities of organising pilgrimages, we ask for your support and prayers.

May Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernadette bless our diocese at this time.

 

Tom Ryan                        Mary Freeman

Pilgrimage Director.          Pilgrimage Secretary